1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to graphical display systems and, in particular, to a system and method utilizing multiple pipelines to render graphical data.
2. Related Art
Computer graphical display systems are commonly used for displaying graphical representations of two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional display device, such as a cathode ray tube, for example. In this regard, a computer graphical display system normally comprises one or more graphics applications having graphical data that defines one or more graphical objects. When a graphical object is to be displayed, the graphics application submits a command or a set of commands, referred to hereafter as a xe2x80x9cdrawing command,xe2x80x9d for drawing the object. The drawing command includes or is associated with graphical data that defines the color value and possibly other attributes for each pixel of the object.
In response to the drawing command, a graphics pipeline within the graphical display system renders the command""s graphical data to a frame buffer. The data within the frame buffer defines the display attributes (e.g., color) for each pixel of a display device, which periodically reads the frame buffer and colors each pixel displayed by the display device according to each pixel""s corresponding color value in the frame buffer. Moreover, by rendering the graphical data of the drawing command to the frame buffer, the image displayed by the output device is eventually updated to comprise an image of the object defined by the graphical data of the drawing command.
Higher quality images are often defined by larger amounts of graphical data. However, increasing the amount of graphical data defining an image to be displayed by a typical graphical display system generally increases the amount time required for the graphical display system to render the graphical data. Thus, a trade-off between image quality and rendering speed often exists, and the overall rendering speed of a typical graphical display system is often a limiting factor in the types of images rendered by the graphical display system.
Generally, the present invention provides a system and method utilizing multiple pipelines for rendering graphical data.
A system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention utilizes a plurality of frame buffers, a plurality of graphics pipelines, a compositor, and logic. The plurality of graphics pipelines is configured to receive graphics commands and to render graphical data to each of the plurality of frame buffers based on the received graphics commands. The compositor is configured to receive a control signal and to interface the graphical data with a display device based on the control signal. The logic is configured to analyze the graphics commands and to make a determination, based on the graphics commands, as to which pixels defined by the graphical data are associated with three-dimensional (3D) regions. The logic is further configured to transmit the control signal to the compositor, wherein the control signal is based on the determination.
A method in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be broadly conceptualized by the following steps: rendering graphical data, in parallel, to a plurality of frame buffers, the graphical data defining a plurality of pixels; transmitting the rendered graphical data via a plurality of video data streams; determining which of the pixels are associated with three-dimensional (3D) regions; transmitting, in parallel with the video data streams, a signal having information indicative of the pixels determined to be associated with 3D regions; and forming, based on the information, a composite data signal that is derived from the rendered graphical data.